About Young Innovators
Young Innovators is a training program for young people interested in learning about eCommerce tools and techniques, and how they can be used for promoting the Global Goals. The program is run in close collaboration with Industry partners and focuses on developing the entrepreneurship skills of the participants via live projects and pitches to CXOs. The program is conducted in English, and is located in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden.
Young Innovators Training Schedule
Saturday 20191012
13:00 – 14:30 Welcome and Orientation Session
Break
15:00 – 16:30 Introduction to Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs)
Speakers – Joydeep
The participants have a welcome mingle, followed by an introductory session on Open-Innovators and Fedobe. The program structure/content is discussed, with introduction of the Speakers and their respective expertise. The participants get to share their expectations from the program and get oriented to the program goals.
Monday 20191014
16:30 – 18:30 Circular Economy in Food System
Speaker – Denisa Poznickova
The concept of Circular Economy is seen as an approach for overcoming the linear economy model, which is followed by remarkable ecological and social impacts and suggests closing the loop of material within the product´s life cycle. It is expected that 80 % of the food will be consumed in cities by 2050. Therefore, it is essential to catalyse the change towards circularity. The participants will find out how circularity can be embraced within the food system.
Tuesday 20191015
16:00 – 18:00 Field trip and Introduction to Case Study (Urban Oasis – hydroponic farm)
Urban Oasis is a hydroponic farm that grows mainly leafy greens and herbs indoors in the absence of soil. Hydroponic way of growing food significantly saves the amount of water used within the production, allows all-year production regardless of outdoor weather condition, while maintaining the nutritious benefits for consumers. On the global scale, hydroponic farming is becoming a popular replacement of conventional agriculture. Urban Oasis is located in Stockholm.
Assignment – Develop a Business Case for company X working with Food Sustainability, and prepare a pitch to potential investors (3 hours of group work)
Wednesday 20191016
16:30 – 18:30 Circular Economy in Textile Industry
Speaker – Caroline Von Post
The focus will be on addressing how the textile industry can work towards becoming more sustainable. It is not only the finished products that need to be sustainable, it is the entire production and distribution process that needs to be reviewed. Caroline has her academic grounding within Systems Ecology and has more than a decade’s experience of working with environmental matters. She is the Founder and CEO of StormiePoodle, and winner of BarCamper 2016, Ideon Innovation Award – a competition for non-tech entrepreneurs in Skåne, Sweden and the City of Stockholm Innovation prize 2015 – category: Everyday products
Thursday 20191017
16:00 – 18:00 Field trip and introduction to Case Study
Saturday 20191019
13:00 – 15:00 Financial Sustainability and Pitching Techniques
Speakers – Andy Cars
The session is about the importance of being business savvy when promoting sustainability. It is crucial to have an understanding of how to get funding, target investors, and secure the financial foundation of any sustainability focused business. The participants will learn how to use business language when pitching to corporate investors or CXOs, building the case for aligning sustainability goals with business strategy. Andy is the founder of Lean Ventures and a serial entrepreneur with a background in the music industry and venture capital. Andy has also been involved in designing and running startup accelerator programs and advising on how to create ecosystems for innovation both locally and internationally.
15:30 – 17:30 – Industry Expectations
Speaker – Tony Lantz
The focus of this session is on the expectations of employers today working with the SDGs. The participants get an idea of what IT skills are most in demand across various industry sectors, and how to leverage their IT training to best meet those requirements. This session is led by the Founder and CEO of Limeblue Impact. Tony has many years of management consulting experience, and of working with start-ups that are SDG aligned. His company plays the matchmaker between IT professionals and social entrepreneurs in need of IT expertise.
Monday 20191021
17:00 – 19:00 – Smart Cities, and Public Speaking/Pitching
Speaker – Mustafa Sherif
The participants get to learn the role of eCommerce in planning smart cities. Mustafa is an urban planner and sustainability enthusiast working on various city design and planning projects in Stockholm. Mustafa will take the participants on an educational tour of central Stockholm where they will get to learn the basics of urban planning with a sustainability focus. They will also learn how to interact freely in a social space and engage the citizens in an informative dialogue about their city. Mustafa will help them learn and apply public speaking techniques in this session, while walking them through the fundamental of Urban city planning.
Tuesday 20191022
17:00 – 18:00 – Urban Planning
Speaker – Mustafa Sherif
This will be a classroom training session in theory of urban planning process. The participants will also get hands on training on how to work with Smart Cities Software.
Assignment – Use the Smart Cities Software to develop a blueprint of a sustainable city
Wednesday 20191023
16:00 – 18:00 – Fundamentals of eCommerce
Speaker – Guru Sanket Biswal
This session will focus on eCommerce tools and techniques viz. Beginners guide to Email Marketing, Newsletter design using Canva and WordPress, Working with Mailchimp, Catalog/Product Management, Product import using import tools, Data rinsing/revisions, Market research, and Social Media Management. Guru is the brain behind Fedobe’s successful eCommerce frameworks. He has built strong digital foundations for businesses across industries and in his spare time, Guru mentors promising young talent in popular eCommerce tools and techniques.
Thursday 20191024
16:00 – 18:00 – Social Media Campaigns
Speaker – Denisa Poznikova
The participants will learn how to use popular eCommerce techniques to create successful social media campaigns across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. They will practice creating white papers, social media posts, doing content quality check, creating posts using Canva and WordPress, and basics of social media marketing and viral marketing. Denisa is our first Young Ambassador based on her outstanding performance in the pilot session of Young Innovators training. Denisa has studied Environmental Economics and Management from SLU, Uppsala, Sweden.
Assignment – Select one SDG that appeals to you the most and create a social media campaign for it using Canva and WordPress
Saturday 20191026
13:00 – 15:00 – The Agony of Monetizing Sustainability
Speaker – Joydeep Dash
This session emphasizes the importance on connecting business acumen with the drive for sustainability. The idea is to prepare the participants to speak the business lingo and succeed in the CXO elevator pitch challenge when promoting any sustainability initiative. The participants will learn the basics of Sales and Marketing techniques, and how to connect them best with online social media campaigns to create maximum impact. Joydeep is the CEO of Fedobe, the parent company of Open-Innovators.org. Joydeep has worked for the past 20 years in The Nordics and DACH countries looking after profit centers, building long term global teams to service business leaders across multiple industries.
15:30 – 17:30 – Beyond 2030
Speaker – Marina Nart
It is only a decade left until the deadline set by Agenda 2030 for achievement of the SDGs. There has been a lot of emphasis on understanding what the SDGs are about but still much is lacking in understanding how they can be best achieved. Marina discusses the importance of Design Thinking, Art of Hosting methods, Systems Thinking and the Theory of Change for addressing this implementation knowledge gap. She is an expert in Sustainability Science and helps corporates align their business strategy successfully with the Global Goals. Marina is the founder and CEO of the Beyond 2030 Project.
Monday 20191028
16:30 – 18:30 – Circularity in IT
Speaker – Victor Ezeogo
The session will focus on the importance of introducing the concept of circularity in the IT sector. There is an enormous negative impact on the environment in the production and disposal of IT hardware products. In this session, the participants will get to know the exact figures of this impact and learn how to minimize it. Victor is the CEO of WeCycle, a company founded with the goal of reducing carbon emissions and raw material use by making it easy for all companies, regardless of their size, to sell used equipment and receive fair market value for them. This is the backbone of circular economy – reusing all reusable equipment.
Tuesday 20191029
16:30 – 18:00 – Field Trip and Case Study
Visit Stockholm Office of one of the leading IT Hardware and Software company
Wednesday 20191030
16:30 – 18:30 – Re-thinking the Consumption Model
Speaker – Alex Engle (To be Confirmed)
The participants will learn about the shared ownership model of consumptions. Consumer behavior is a crucial element that needs to be taken into account. eCommerce has transformed the shopping experience and can also be used to offer people the option to share the buying experience with other people. They get to enjoy better quality products that otherwise could be unaffordable, at a fraction of the cost. This changes the consumption pattern, reducing the negative impact of over consumption and over production. Alex Engle will discuss how the initiative is being implemented in Sweden by iHopa. The participants will get to engage directly with a social entrepreneur and get practical tips and advice on how to be successful with introducing sustainable initiatives in the private sector.
Thursday 20191031
16:30 – 17:30 – Field Trip to H&M Take Care
18:00 – 18:30 – Final Group Assignment (Five groups of three participants each):
Compile the three Case Studies and prepare a final Project Report, connecting each of the case studies with the SDGs they are most closely aligned with.
The deadline for submission is November 13th, 2019
Friday 20191101
16:00 – 16:30 – Three minutes CXO elevator pitch competition – Five pitches by teams of three participants each
Each team will select 2-3 SDGs that they would like to promote and create a business idea for it. They will get to pitch their ideas to the Jury comprising of real life CXOs.
16:30 – 20:00 Farewell Mingle and Award Ceremony
INSTRUCTORS
Mayeda Jamal
TEDx speaker Dr Mayeda Jamal brings a rare mix of business acumen and sustainability focus, in combination with being a goal driven management consultant, dedicated researcher and University teacher. Mayeda has the benefit of both in-depth theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience of working as a management consultant for the private sector. Mayeda has been an Assistant Professor at the Linköpings University and has taught post graduate students in economy, social development, and international aid. She also taught the graduate and post graduate students at the Stockholm School of Economics in Stockholm, Sweden (Handelshögskolan i Stockholm) during her PhD studies and was elected the best motivational speaker at the London School of Economics and Political Science’s summer program. Mayeda leads the Young Innovators training.
Marina Nart
Marina Nart is a sustainability expert and founder of the Beyond2030 project. She consults and trains public and private organisations with a mission to help them contribute to and go beyond the United Nations Agenda 2030 goals. Marina holds an M.Sc. in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science from Lund University, Sweden. Prior to the BEYOND2030 Project, Marina has co-founded the first Center for Social Innovation at Lund University, designed and facilitated over 100 co-creative workshops and processes for social innovation and sustainability.
Joydeep Dash
As CEO of Fedobe, Joydeep is responsible for customer business success with Fedobe’s Frameworks. Joydeep has worked for the past 20 years in The Nordics and DACH countries looking after profit centers, building long term global teams to service companies that are business leaders in their respective industries. Joydeep’s passion for sustainability is only exceeded by his interest in Yoga and Marathons.
Guru Sanket Biswal
With a decade of experience in IT architecture and Technology automation, Guru is the brain behind Fedobe’s successful eCommerce frameworks. His passion is reflected in his work and Guru has built strong digital foundations for businesses across industries. In his spare time, he mentors local promising talents and loves playing with puzzles.
Mustafa Sherif
Mustafa is an Urban Planner with focus on the future social and smart cities. He is also part of TEDx Stockholm Speakers Team and PR Architects Sweden. Mustafa holds an M.Sc. in Sustainable Urban Planning and Design from The Royal Institute of technology in Stockholm and Politecnico di Milano in Italy. He worked as a Highschool teacher. Now as an urban planner he is developing social sustainability urban planning principle in Sweden. His passion is to meet and bring people together to create a creative, sustainable and better future for now and next coming generation.
Tony Lantz
Tony is the Founder of Limeblue Impact (and several others). A startup that connects social entrepreneurs with volunteers. Limeblue Impact´s purpose is to help companies become more compassionate and sustainable. He has a background as a management consultant, but had a dream to actually do something about the future of the world. He decided to take an action and that is how Limeblue Impact was born. He has a background as a management consultant, volunteer in Mozambique and has found his purpose in life.
Andy Cars
Andy Cars is the founder of Lean Ventures and a serial entrepreneur with a background in the music industry and venture capital. By drawing on the experience from working with hundreds of startup teams on lean startup, business modeling, go-to-market strategy, and fundraising, Andy is able to provide unique insights into what it takes to successfully innovate. Besides being a popular speaker, workshop leader, mentor, and coach, Andy is also a committeé member of the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS), where he is contributing to creating an international standard for Innovation Management. Companies that Andy has worked include Telia, Tieto, SMHI and BillerudKorsnäs. Andy has also been involved in designing and running startup accelerator programs and advising on how to create ecosystems for innovation both locally and internationally.
Denisa Poznickova
Denisa is one of the first students to get trained under the Young Innovators program. Now she plays an active role in the training program by helping students gain insights into sustainability. A firm believer of sustainable future, Denisa has been helping the society through various volunteering activities. She has studied Environmental Economics and Management from SLU, Uppsala, Sweden. Now she is the training coordinator, helping students gain insight into the role of eCommerce tools/techniques in promoting the SDGs